Continuous-wave all-optical single-photon transistor based on a Rydberg-atom ensemble

Continuous-wave (cw) architectures provide a promising route to interface disparate quantum systems by relaxing the need for precise synchronization. While essential cw components, including microwave single-photon transistors and microwave–optical converters, have been explored, an all-optical cw single-photon transistor has remained a missing piece. We propose a high-efficiency, high-gain implementation using Rydberg atoms, in which a control photon disrupts the transmission of a continuous probe beam via the van der Waals interaction. This device completes the set of components required for cw processing of quantum signals and paves the way for all-optical processing at the quantum level.